VT-D enabled + RAID-Controller accessible? Anyone got it running ?

[marcB201110141]

I got a small Server here with an i5 and Intel NICs which is running fine out of the box with ESXi4.1 U1 .

I tried VT-d to pass a PCI-device to one VM (not the RAID-Controller) which worked perfectly as long the RAID is not in use (I put the VM on a single SATA Disk in IDE-Mode)

I have tried 2 different RAID Controllers: LSI MegaRaid 8704EM2 and Adaptec 3405 (both on the HCL!)

As long as VT-d is DISABLED both controllers also work fine.

But as soon as the VT-d option is enabled in the BIOS settings the storage is not accessible any more from ESXi.

(Each try with a clean install to a USB-Stick) Also Win7 is able to use the Storage with VT-d enabled...

Searching the web for days now I found a lot of threads pointing the same problem but never ever showing a solution.

I wonder if anyone ever could manage to have a RAID running together with VT-d...

Even with the Dell Perc I found post with the same problem..

Any help or any proofen RAID-Controller recommendation would be appreciated

Thanks a lot!

[ShibaKun]

I'm facing the same problem.  I have an LSI HBA with several disks in RAID 5.  The RAIDed device is seen by vSphere 4 if I go into the BIOS and disable VT-d.  However, I've got a FC HBA that I want to use with VMDirectPath.  Is there anyone who knows how to attach the disk to a datastore?

[wveinti]

I'm facing the same problem  with my dell perc 5/i and poweredge t110

I have 2 vm in windows 2008 64 bit that I can't run because if I enable vt-d

the datastore becomes unstable

any ideas?

[jjozwik]

I have read in another thread that people have had success installing ESXi on a USB or SD card drive.

They reported back vt-d functional and that the raid controller was working.

Here is a link.

http://communities.intel.co.jp/thread/20540

I am going to try it out. I hope it works as I was really planning on using the vt-d support.

[jjozwik]

Just tried that.

It did not work.

[Roadmeister]

Hi.  I'd sure like to know if any progress has been made with this issue.  In my test system I experience the same problem as the original poster described.  When VT-d is enabled in the BIOS, my PERC 5/i controller behaves strangely and VMFS volumes become inaccessible after creation.  I've tried using ESX5i and ESX4i and get roughly the same results.  The problems with ESX4i seems to occur a little quicker though.

Here's what I'm using:

• Asus P6X58E Pro (BIOS is current as of today, version 0504), Intel X58 Chipset
  
• Intel i7 950 processor
  
• Dell PERC 5/i RAID controler
  

I intend to use passthrough, but I've not configured any devices yet.  I need to get the file system stable before I make any assignments.

Anyone have any updated info on this?  If you need more specific information about my hardware, please ask.  Thanks!

[jjozwik]

Thanks for letting us know the issue still exist in v5. I was hoping that v5 was going to fix everything in my life :-)

That is a bummer. I was really geeked about the vt-d functionality but thus far every attempt I have made at using it for something useful ended in a flaky or non-functional setup.

I am wondering if the problem is on vmware side or the implementation on a given CPU with AMD or Intel. I wonder if they are working the bugs out.